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In the context of significant environmental changes, the urgency of adopting green innovation has become increasingly apparent as a central mechanism for adjusting industrial structures in China. This transition serves not only as a crucial way to address pressing environmental challenges, but also as a fundamental strategy to improve the ecological efficiency of urban areas. Existing research mainly keeps a close eye on the unidirectional relationship between variables such as technological innovation and environmental protection. There is less relevant literature that has researched the cointegration relationship among green innovation, industrial structure, and eco-efficiency of cities. The essential role of green innovation and industrial structure in reaching a higher eco-efficiency of city are discussed in this research and the relationship among these three variables are analyzed by the evidence from cities in China from 2011 to 2019. The fact that the variables are cointegrated in the long run is evidenced by the results for the full sample. The sub-sample results report that in the eastern region, green innovation, industrial structure upgrading, and industrial structure rationalization could improve urban eco-efficiency. However, in Midwest regions where economic development is relatively backward, green innovation's effect on urban eco-efficiency is not in a significant positive way. The results obtained in this paper have implications for different cities in China to formulate corresponding policies on green innovation, industrial structure, and urban eco-efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the high incidence of extreme events, it is important to examine how the occurrence of natural disasters influences long‐term sustainable development. We give evidence from the changing process of innovation. Using data from OECD countries from 1985 to 2018, we conclude that environmental threats from the occurrence of natural disasters drive countries to pay more attention to sustainable development and promote the change of innovation type from traditional to green innovation. Moreover, for different types of natural disasters, volcanic activities, landslides, and floods show a positive influence, while epidemics dampen it. Based on the sub‐sample analysis, this impact is more pronounced in countries with high levels of economic development, oil exports and right‐wing parties in power. Furthermore, renewable energy consumption acts as a positive moderator, while the moderating effects of government efficiency, corruption and globalization are inhibiting. Our paper provides new insights into natural disaster economics and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using panel data from 37 countries from 1990 to 2019 and applying a quantile regression approach with panel fixed effects, we investigate the impact of national Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance on green innovation and how this impact varies across different green innovation capacity distributions. The research conclusions are as follows. (1) National ESG performance improvement significantly promotes green innovation. (2) The improvement of environmental performance and governance performance significantly promotes green innovation, but in countries with weak green innovation capabilities, the improvement of social performance reduces the output of green innovation. (3) The role of national ESG performance in promoting green innovation is stronger in countries with weak green innovation capabilities. (4) In non‐high‐income countries, the stronger the green innovation capability is, the more obvious is the promotion of ESG performance to green innovation. The findings of this paper provide empirical evidence and a policy basis for governments to focus on improving ESG performance and to commit to promoting green innovation activities more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines a panel of 121 economies worldwide over the period 1980–2020 for the impact of political competition on green innovation. We find that an increase in the intensity of political competition has a significantly negative impact on green innovation and that this impact remains significant in the long term, especially for non‐OECD countries and middle (low) income countries, whereas the sub‐indicators of political competition indicate that the level of institutionalization of political participation and the degree of government restrictions on political participation have different impacts on green innovation. The findings also reveal that lower political risk and higher levels of globalization positively moderate the negative impact of political competition on green innovation. The adverse effects of party competition are exacerbated when left‐wing parties are in power. This study offers new insight into sustainable development based on examining the relationship between political competition and green innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research concerning determinants of climate change mitigation technology (CCMT) development mainly focuses on the role of climate policy, environmental awareness, or R&D intensity. What has been rarely noticed is that the oil price, as an indication of primary energy costs, can make countries with high energy intensity lean toward renewable energy consumption and invest more in the innovation activities of CCMT. Employing a panel investigation of 30 economies from 1990 to 2019, We find strong evidence that rising oil prices promote CCMT performance. The positive effect of increased oil prices on CCMT is imposed by lowering energy intensity, increasing renewable energy consumption, and promoting energy-technology R&D. Such an impact is more pronounced for CCMT related to energy generation and efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, and transportation. To obtain more concrete policy implications, we also explore heterogeneities of this promoting effect across different levels of economic development and oil dependence. • Increased oil prices positively affect CCMT's share in green innovation. • A rise in oil prices spurs CCMT innovation related to energy, greenhouse gases, and transportation. • The effect of oil prices on CCMT's share in green innovation is more notable in oil-importing, high-income, and developed economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green finance provides an important impetus to green innovation and sustainable development. This study investigates the connection between green finance and green innovation using cross-country panel data that cover 75 developing countries from 2000 to 2019. First, we find that green finance significantly boosts the number of green patent applications in developing countries, which is crucial for promoting green development. Second, we divide countries according to whether they are members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or the Belt and Road Initiative, and their environmental performance. Heterogeneity results show in countries with poor environmental performance, non-RCEP member countries, and non-BRI member countries that the contribution of green funding is more obvious and significant. Furthermore, we consider several cross-items to explore how green finance influences green innovation differently depending on the circumstance, such as the degree of corruption, political stability, and government effectiveness. Overall, our findings highlight the key role that green finance plays in advancing green innovation, particularly for emerging economies that urgently need a policy foundation for green innovation and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the bidirectional cointegration relationship between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and corporate green innovation with a panel of 770 Chinese listed firms during the 2011–2020. We find that there exists a long‐run bidirectional comovement between ESG performance and corporate green innovation output. ESG performance exerts a short‐run and long‐run causal link with green innovation output. The panel cointegration test and VECM estimation also support that ESG performance moves together with green innovation output for clean industries, while ESG performance only presents a long‐run relationship to green invention patents output for pollution industries. Our findings offer important value for policymakers and enterprises to propose an effective strategy to stimulate green innovation and improve ESG score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research illustrates the impact of energy insecurity on green innovation based on green patent data from 1970 to 2018 in 40 sample countries. Through the bootstrap-based bias-corrected FE (BCFE) estimator analysis with the advantages of bootstrap-based bias correction in panels with cross-sectional dependence and in high-order dynamics, we first find that increased insecurity of fossil energy has an incentive impact on green innovation. Second, through sub-sample regression, we find that energy insecurity in non-OECD countries has a more significant positive impact on green innovation than OECD countries. Third, energy insecurity under the leadership of the left-wing party has no impact on green innovation, while the right-wing party exhibits a positive effect. Fourth, for oil-exporting countries and importing countries, the impact of energy insecurity on green innovation is significantly different. Finally, this paper examines the mediator role of energy and environmental policies and energy consumption structure through causal inference and confirms the mechanism for the impact of energy insecurity on green innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green finance is a novel financial model that strikes a balance between economic gains and environmental preservation, and it is crucial in encouraging industrial companies to move towards environmentally friendly development. This paper examines the impact of green finance on the green transformation of industrial enterprises using the data of China's A-share listed industrial enterprises from 2009 to 2019. The study adopts a propensity score matching method and a difference-in-difference method (PSM-DID), based on the Green Credit Guidance (2012 Guidance) issued by China as a quasi natural experiment. The results suggest that: (1) Green finance contributes significantly to improving the green production efficiency of industrial enterprises. (2) Although the current impact of green finance on the green innovation of industrial enterprises is not statistically significant, it exhibits a positive influence in the subsequent period. (3) The results of the heterogeneity analysis show that the impact of green finance on the green transformation of industrial enterprises is asymmetric, with more emphasis on state-owned enterprises, enterprises with severe financial constraints, and enterprises with low industrial concentration. As a result, our study makes recommendations on how to best link CSR, green finance, and industrial green transformation. • We investigate the impact of green finance on green transformation of industrial enterprises. • Using the data of China's A-share listed industrial enterprises from 2009 to 2019. • The results suggest that green finance significantly improves industrial green production efficiency. • Our study makes recommendations on how to best link CSR, green finance, and industrial green transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the effect of extreme weather events on green innovation by using unbalanced panel data covering 117 countries from 1971 to 2018 and documents strong evidence that extreme weather has a significantly negative impact on green innovation. We also find among the four extreme weather events such as droughts, extreme temperature, floods, and storms that floods have the most prominent adverse impact on green innovation. Furthermore, the significantly negative effect of extreme weather is manifested in countries with a high level of corruption and low level of trade openness, but not in the countries with a low level of corruption and a high level of trade openness. Lastly, we show that extreme weather events have an adverse impact on green innovation by decreasing economic growth level, hindering financial development, widening income inequality, damaging the accumulation of human capital, and increasing the political risk. • This research investigates the effect of extreme weather events on green innovation. • By using unbalanced panel data covering 117 countries from 1971 to 2018. • Documents strong evidence that extreme weather has a significantly negative impact on green innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green innovation is essential for human beings to balance growth and climate change mitigation. The corruption-green innovation nexus has been studied by two existing studies, but the relative weak econometrical work and the lack of exploration in the context of inter-government cooperation on global climate change call for a revisited investigation. Our research robustly tests and confirms that corruption has a significantly negative effect on green innovation, which overturns the opposing conclusion of the previous global examination. Moreover, we find that the signing of international environmental agreements (IEAs) mitigates corruption's negative effect in the short term, whereas IEA's entry into force deteriorates this hindering impact in the long term. Such a divergence may originate from a change in the expectation of economic entities in the government's enforcement quality of environment policies issued for meeting IEA's emission target. Lastly, we provide several suggestions for dealing with climate change more effectively from the perspective of global governance. • We investigate the relationship between corruption and green innovation. • The data span covers 162 countries from 1970 to 2019. • Corruption has a significant negative impact on green innovation performance. • The signing of the IEA remits this negative effect in the short term, while it tends to deteriorate it in the long term. • This divergence originate from a change in the expectation of economic entities in the government's enforcement quality of environment polices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using panel data of 102 countries from 1990 to 2018, this research investigates the varying effect of renewable energy policies on renewable energy green innovation along with the distribution of green innovation. The panel quantile model with additive fixed effect is adopted in this paper, and the research conclusions are as follows. (1) Green innovation positively correlates with national renewable energy policy. (2) Renewable policy is more effective in countries with stronger green innovation capacity. (3) In five different areas of renewable energy, renewable policy is unable to promote green innovation in the lowest innovative countries. (4) Renewable policy exerts the smallest influence on green innovation of geothermal energy compared to other renewable energies. In sum, this paper provides an empirical reference for governments to launch renewable energy policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the effect of environmental policy stringency on green innovation in renewable energy technology and whether the green innovation response differs with varying degrees of environmental policy. Based on panel data of 33 countries over the period 1990–2015, we show that a stringent environmental policy does encourage green innovation in renewable energy technology, and this impact is more pronounced in OECD countries and high-income countries. More specifically, a stringent non-market-based environmental policy induces more patents in renewable energy generation. The findings also show that a stringent environmental policy yields green innovation for geothermal energy, hydro energy, and marine energy, but not for wind energy and solar energy. Heterogeneity analysis suggests that innovation capacity and environmental pressure enhance the impact of environmental policy stringency on green innovation in the renewable energy field. Finally, the paper presents that clean energy investment plays the role of a mechanism through which environmental policy stringency spurs green innovation in the renewable energy field, offering insights into the influence of environmental policy stringency on green innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, nations are increasingly focusing on green innovation in their environmental protection efforts as part of sustainable development, and digital finance is playing a vital role in enhancing green innovation. Employing annual data from 220 prefecture-level cities between 2011 and 2019, we empirically analyze the connections among environmental performance, digital finance, and green innovation via the Karavias panel unit root test with structural breaks, the Gregory-Hansen structural break cointegration test and pooled mean group (PMG) estimation. The following four points are the key conclusions: (1) The results support cointegration links between these variables when structural breaks are considered. (2) The PMG estimation outcomes indicate that green innovation and digital finance may have a favorable long-term effect on environmental performance. (3) For better environmental performance and more green innovation, the level of digitalization of digital finance is crucial. (4) The potential of digital finance and green innovation to improve environmental performance has not been fully realized in the western region of China. • The relationship among environmental performance, green innovation, and digital finance is investigated. • The entropy method is used to evaluate the environmental performance. • Green innovation benefits environmental performance in the long run. • Digital finance improves environmental performance through providing financial support to green innovation. • There is cointegration relationship among the three variables after considering structural breaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]